The Disruption to the Practice of Instructional Design During COVID-19

Abstract

A thematic analysis of interviews conducted with 33 instructional designers revealed impacts to instructional design practice during COVID-19 including: differentiating emergency remote teaching from well-designed instruction, the increasing visibility of the instructional design role, challenges with social connections, increasing workloads, and additional challenges related to time, access, resources, and remote learning. Findings suggest the role of instructional designers will be more visible post-pandemic, with participants viewing the future of instructional design as full of emerging opportunities.